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Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
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---- Nous avons besoin d'un traduction français!
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The tournament takes place at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis from August 5 to 16, 2016. It is a 10-player round robin with a prize fund of $300,000.
Schedule
Fri Aug 5 – Round 1
Sat Aug 6 – Round 2
Sun Aug 7 – Round 3
Mon Aug 8 – Round 4
Tue Aug 9 – Round 5
Wed Aug 10 – Rest Day
Thu Aug 11 – Round 6
Fri Aug 12 – Round 7
Sat Aug 13 – Round 8
Sun Aug 14 – Round 9
Mon Aug 15 – Playoff, Closing Ceremony
Rounds start at 1:00 PM CDT/ 2:00 PM EDT
Individual Round Day Pass $10
Players
Viswanathan Anand
Levon Aronian
Fabiano Caruana
Anish Giri
Vladimir Kramnik
Hikaru Nakamura,
Wesley So
Veselin Topalov
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Ding Liren
No Karjakin, no Carlsen. This is the third leg of the Grand Chess Tour that culminates in the London Chess Classic, December 8-19. Paris and Leuven took place in June.
During the Second Sinquefield Cup, 2014 there was the ALS ice bucket challenge craze sweeping the nation. At the time, Caruana was playing sensationally and made a video that went:
Hi, I’m Fabiano Caruana - I am here in St. Louis about to play the Sinquefield Cup, the strongest tournament ever - this is my ALS ice bucket challenge - I was challenged by Anish Giri and I would like now to challenge Maurice Ashley, Yasser Seirawan and Levon Aronian (ice water dumped on his head).
Lady photographer: I didn’t get that, can we do it again?
- (Nigel Short) Will I start playing like a 3000+ player if I take the ice-bucket challenge?
__________
Maybe you did it, pouring a bucket of ice water on your head in order to raise money for charity. Maybe you hated the viral phenomenon with a burning passion. But no matter how you felt about the “Ice Bucket Challenge” when it took over the Internet in the fall of 2014, the meme is actually getting results, according to the main charity that benefited from the campaign.
With the millions raised for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research from the viral stunt, the ALS Association said it was able to fund research that identified a new gene, NEK1, that contributes to the disease, the non-profit announced on Monday. The breakthrough is the subject of a paper published in Nature Genetics.
The viral campaign raised more than $115 million for the ALS Association alone, in order to fund research into new treatments for the disease. ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, a progressive neurological condition that causes muscle weakness and atrophy from the deterioration of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.
Due to health issues, GM Vladimir Kramnik has withdrawn from the Sinquefield Cup, which starts next week in St. Louis. GM Peter Svidler will replace Kramnik.
Kramnik, who was going to make his debut in St. Louis, told Chess.com: “I have had back problems for quite some time already. Since it is getting worse, I just want to use this month to cure it.”
________
There has been no official announcement yet because there may be visa problems in getting Svidler in.
Comments online
- Kramnik has reportedly suffered from ankylosing spondylitis, which is no laughing matter. He is wise for taking time off so he can get adequate rest and treat himself in positive, supportive ways.
- Back problem? No problem! (Remember Tony Miles playing Viktor Korchnoi on a stretcher).
- When Miles started using that massage table, he went on a big winning streak. As I recall, some of his opponents complained that it was distracting, and one prominent GM commented that being prone should help, since you'd get more blood to the brain. When asked about giving up the massage table, Miles said he'd withdraw if he couldn't use it, since his back pain was so bad. The organizers allowed him to continue using it. As a form of protest, one of Miles's opponents played their entire game standing up.
Chess Life had an article about this episode, amusingly titled "Was Miles just prone to win".
- Svidler vs Giri should be a good post-mortem if nothing else (assuming Mo Ashley or whoever lets them gab). If he were available (no idea if he was or not), I'd say Mamedyarov would be a good last-minute choice, as he plays about the same with or without preparation (only half-joking), and aggressively in either case (Svidler being a great draw master of old, of course). Obviously Rapport would have been another possible selection, though for his sake I'd hope he'd decline it (don't want to face the sharks with minimal prep at his age IMO).
- MVL is really hot right now and might be the slight favorite, although Nakamura probably has even odds with him.
The only problem is that Svidler has been given an ELO of 2801, whereas, I believe he is World Number 14 with a rating of 2754.
Peter Svidler
Title:
Grandmaster
Rating:
2801
Residence:
Russia
Age:
40
Status:
Accepted
Bio:
Svidler is a 7 time Russian Chess Champion (1994, 1995, 1997, 2003, 2008, 2011, 2013.) He also has represented the Russian Olympiad team 10 times helping his team win the gold medal in his first five appearances. By winning the 2011 Chess World Cup, he qualified for Candidates stage of the 2013 World Championship cycle. In that event, Peter soundly defeated the eventual World Champion, Magnus Carlsen. Svidler is also world-renowned chess commentator.
MVL's recent rise in ratings to the top player in the world not named Carlsen has not gone unnoticed in the betting world. He's co-favourite here with Caruana at 11/5 with Nakamura a very close 3rd at 13/5.
Oddly enough, Caruana is the longest shot on the board today in his R1 game with Anand at 34/5. That's largely because this is the game most likely to be drawn with 15 of their previous 19 classical encounters ending in such fashion. :(
There's little empirical evidence but in their brief history Ding Liren is a perfect +2 -0 =2 against Aronian.
The commentators are Jennifer Shahade, Yasser Seirawan and Maurice Ashley.
It struck me that in the reporting of many chess events that the historical context is not given and would be interesting to know. For the present that is trivial but for five years hence, perhaps, looking back, I would put on record that during these two weeks - the Summer Olympic games have started in Rio. The Zika virus spread by mosquitoes is a danger there and elsewhere. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the candidates for U.S. President with the election coming up in November. The Chess Olympiad in Baku is less than a month away. The Blue Jays are fighting with the Orioles for first place in the AL East. Have I missed anything important?
______
Getting serious now, the broadcast had the usual first-round hiccups - no transmission at first and then not being able to get the playback feature working until some time after the games were over. That makes it very difficult to check quotes.
Svidler is the first do go down after a blunder against Topalov (25...Rb4). Peter was pleasant at the postmortem with Maurice, saying that he associates the playing venue with his results and he will appreciate St. Louis better when his results are better.
Veselin said he had the impression that Peter was still suffering from jet lag, taking a huge amount of time on two simple moves. "He was still in Switzerland."
Ding Liren was satisfied with the draw in his first game. He did a lot of calculation in the first half. He thinks things will be better when he gains more confidence. He had his coach with him but gave the interview by himself.
Lev Aronian said that he likes a fighting game but when it is boring, you pray for it to end. He thought that Ding Liren was a little intimidated in his first Sinquefield Cup appearance.
On the question of Ding Liren's confidence, he said that in his first super-tournament, the Corus at Wijk aan Zee (2006), he had to meet Vassily Ivanchuk. He went all out, lost a couple of pawns and the game.
It is a game well-worth playing over, a King's Indian. Some comments at chessgames.com:
- Aronian played over-ambitiously today, while Ivanchuk conducted the game perfectly.
- Well, at least he tried to play for a win! I guess the inexperience leads to these things, but I hope Aronian recovers
- Awful start to the tournament for Aronian. A loss like this can really harm your confidence. Any game when you overlook straightforward tactics can not make you feel too good.
- A big cheer for both players! The game was very unbalanced and interesting. A pawn on the 7th rank is something to reckon with, but maybe Aronian put too much confidence in it. Time-trouble could also have been a factor.
Maurice asked Levon if he was going to pick on the Americans the way he did last year. Levon said, "I don't pick on anyone. I'm just like a doctor, waiting for my patients."
Wesley So destroyed Nakamura in their game and in the postmortem he said, "I would like to thank the Lord and my seconds for the victory and preparing this line."
Hikaru seemed to be in a good mood, despite his loss. He said he just wasn't seeing things today. He would calculate a line, play it and then see at the end something he hadn't foreseen. He just didn't deserve to win today.
Anish Giri outtalked Maurice, but in a nice way. Giri had a good game going but played 34.Ka2? and that game went to a draw. Maxime said the difference in his play from last year is that he is that his opening preparation is working much better and he is getting positions in which he feels very much at ease and that is giving him confidence.
Vishy said he was caught off-guard with this version of the French against Fabiano. What made the game interesting was that both players were unfamiliar with the opening and had to work things out at the board. It was a game rich in possibilities.
Vishy related that at one point he was a little short of time and then the condensate from the air conditioner started to drip on the board and they had to fix the situation.
The games:
Sinquefield Cup 2016
Round 1, Aug. 5, 2016
Giri, Anish - Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime
B90 Sicilian, Najdorf
While I fully understand the Caruana odds given his empirical domination of Topalov, +5 -1 =7 (and an additional +6 -1 =1 at quicker time controls), the Aronian odds are a bit mystifying. They stand +4 -4 =23 at classical time controls (with Svidler having a +6 -4 =3 edge at quicker time controls). Given 3 of Svidler's 4 wins have come with Black I rather like both the draw odds and the Svidler win odds. :)
I thought I saw white earbuds in Wesley So’s ears yesterday. That would be illegal but evidently they are yellow earplugs, which I suppose are legal. I must keep an eye on them.
There were a lot of comments online about Wesley thanking the Lord and his seconds for his win yesterday. This is quite common in other sports such as pro football. One kibitzer has no problem with this:
- To all those commenting negatively about Wesley's religious beliefs in relation to chess, are you yourself religious? I am not religious myself but if Wesley believes something divine helped him to victory, then he can by all means thank the Lord. It is part of his great character and I love him for it!
Others have said that God isn't interested in ELO points.
Ding Liren went wrong in his game against So today (19. Nxb7) and allowed him to draw it.
________
There has been some discussion about streaks without losing a game. MVL’s record prior to his game with Anish Giri yesterday was this:
The FIDE calculations are 6 at Euro Club Cup, 9 at Euro Team Champ, 9 in London, 10 in Gibraltar, 1 Spanish Team game, 9 in Norway Chess, 1 in 4NCL, 10 in French teams, 7 in Dortmund, 4 in Biel), for a total of 66 prior to the Giri game.
Anand said something went wrong in the opening of his game with MVL and he was just hanging on for many moves. Vachier-Lagrave really liked his position early, and rightly so. Even a few of his competitors remarked that it was a pity he blew such a well-played game. 30. Nxe6 allowed Anand to get out from under. He finally broke MVL’s unbeaten streak at 67 games.
________
Maurice interviewing Fabiano said that he looked dead in the water. Fabi admitted that his play today was shaky but he did save the game. Veselin said that he didn’t see a way to make any progress in the endgame no matter what the computer says. Some games are too complex with fortresses etc for the computer to evaluate properly. He was happy with his result.
Mike Klein has a great line about this game in his chess.com writeup:
Instead Caruana somehow got his Faraday cage past the metal detectors, offering his queen for a collection of pieces and living to tell the story.
________
Svidler said that he was spending a lot of time on moves today not because he was day-dreaming but because the positions were complex. Losing today was unnecessary but he cannot blame jetlag and he is not dying!
Aronian gave his usual amusing interview causing the commentators all to laugh. This quote:
Winning, not losing, is the secret of chess.
Anish was quite charming, well-behaved and modest in his interview. Probably because Maurice has stopped saying that he is the youngest player there.
Anish said that he made five horrible moves in a row and then he got Hikaru confused.
Nakamura said that they both missed tactics in this game but he enjoyed the game thoroughly, because it was chess in its purest form.
The games:
Sinquefield Cup 2016
St. Louis, Mo.
Round 2, Aug. 6, 2016
Caruana, Fabiano – Topalov, Veselin
C84 Ruy Lopez, Closed
I'm not sure where Tarjei J. Svensen got his 70 number from, but his tweets use that number, not 66.
Tarjei J. Svensen @TarjeiJS 17h17 hours ago
MVL with a great position vs Anand, and will likely be 71 games straight without a loss. Crazy! https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-to...cup-2016/2/1/3 … #SinquefieldCup
Tarjei J. Svensen @TarjeiJS 14h14 hours ago
Vachier-Lagrave's incredible streak of 70 games without a loss comes to an end, as he's beaten by Anand. #SinquefieldCup
Whatever that MVL number was, it was still well short of Tal's two longest streaks. From Wikipedia:
Consecutive games without a loss
Between October 23, 1973, when he lost a game in a Soviet championship, and October 16, 1974, when he lost to Kirov at the Novi Sad tournament, Mikhail Tal had a string of 95 tournament games without a loss (46 wins and 49 draws).[84][85] Tal also has the second-longest unbeaten run in top-level competition. He went unbeaten in 86 games from July 1972, when he lost to Gunnar Uusi in the tenth round at Viljandi, until April 1973, when he lost to Balashov in round two of the USSR Team Championship in Moscow. This streak included 47 wins and 39 draws.[86]
José Raúl Capablanca went eight years without a loss (1916 to 1924, including his World Chess Championship 1921 victory over Emanuel Lasker), but this was "only" 63 games.[87]
Watching the commentary today, I was reminded of one of the first chess commentators. WNET, the public broadcasting channel in New York City, aired the world championship between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. The match itself wasn’t shown, instead, a 35-year-old sociology professor and chess master, Shelby Lyman, would replay the moves in the Albany, N.Y. studio.
Lyman (b. 1936), the host, became an instant sensation. People watched in bars, played hooky from work, shut off the baseball game and tuned into Lyman as he rushed around the set, explaining the game.
When it was over, Lyman was nearly as much a celebrity as Fischer. He got a syndicated chess column, which, the last I had heard, is still going.
_______
Eric Hansen has an amusing spot with pictures of him dressed as a hockey player and a Mountie. It is called Chess, eh? He had an interview with Women’s GM Tatev Abrahamyan and at one point asked her whom she thought would be the first lady player at the Sinquefield. Her answer was Hou Yifan now and Ju Wenjun in the future.
Levon said that he had looked at the opening line in today’s game with Wesley So a year ago. It is a good playable game for Black and easier for him to play than White. Maurice asked, “Is this draw what the doctor ordered?” and Levon replied, “Yes, a doctor waiting for his patient.” Yasser and Jennifer agree that Levon will make a good commentator some day.
Another online kibitzer has noticed Wesley’s earplug:
- Hey, anyone knows what kind of earplug Wesley has put in his right ear??? He is still wearing that earplug while playing. Anyone knows anything about it?
- Foam construction earplugs. 25 cents on music night at your local bar
______
Vishy said that he was very optimistic about his game but Hikaru defended well and it was hard to get anything practical going. Nakamura agreed: I was always OK, I think. It was all very tricky for both of us. One wrong move by me and I think I am losing on the spot, and one for Vishy and it can all turn around.
Maurice was asking the players about starting off in the Classical Chess Era and then going to one where the computer often finds positions that are good despite being against practical principles.
Hikaru said that he grew up playing in New York and the prevailing culture was to win at all costs. He did get some classical training and considers that modern chess started with Capablanca.
_________
The game that all the grandmasters were looking at was Giri-Ding Liren. Ding could have won by walking his black king to e4 with queens still on the board but chickened out.
Ding played 35…Rxc2? instead of Ke4.
“In the end I was not so brave – I just saw it was a draw and went for it”.
Later when Maurice Ashley mentioned that Giri was “quite a good player”, Anish shot back, “I used to be!”
________
Veselin blundered badly and nearly had to resign in the first half hour, yet still survived. He played 27.Rd3 and fortunately MVL answered with Rxc2 rather than d5. MVL wasn’t happy that he had just drawn.
“It was a blunder, but at the same time this endgame felt like a draw, so I was actually looking for ways to avoid queen exchanges, and in the circumstances not finding 27…d5, but only thinking about it when we were well into the endgame, showed unnecessary stupidity.”
The big stories of this round were MVL and Ding Liren letting wins get away from them.
________
Peter Svidler finally got half a point.
At the time control, all eyes were on Fabiano’s clock. He had 9 seconds to make it and at 1 second he punched the clock and got his additional ration of time. “I think I was very lucky after the time control that he (Peter) wasn’t winning, or close to winning.”
He said that his opening play was pretty bad but he survived. He was told that his manager, Lawrence Trent, said it would be a draw and was seen playing bullet chess outside!
The games:
Sinquefield Cup 2016
St. Louis, Mo
Round 3, Aug. 7, 2016
So, Wesley – Aronian, Levon
C53 Giuoco Piano
I see that Jan Gustafsson is on the German channel. I am used to him and his German is clear, so that I could follow his commentary if it were necessary. During his commentary for Biel he mentioned he was going to watch The Lobster on Netflix and I want to know what he thought about it. It is a dystopian drama in the Greek Theatre of the Absurd that takes place in Ireland. Guidance is obviously needed here.
A couple of chat room comments are amusing:
- What's the name of Caruana's Defense vs Aronian's d4 opener?
- c5 looks like an invitation to some kind of benoni
- Ohhhh the Benoni, thanks Sana!
[Is the Benoni played that infrequently now? I can remember when there were books and books on that opening]
And this exchange:
- Are competitors allowed to speak to their opponents during the match? For instance could one tell his opponent "Good move!"
- It's not usual
_______
Aronian and Caruana talk to Maurice after drawing their game.
Levon said that he wasn’t feeling well – something that he ate or drunk last night. He knows it was cowardly but he had to make a draw.
Someone says, “Yasser’s seafood paella, perhaps?”
Fabiano says that he has tried to play the Benoni twenty times in the past but only had it accepted once, by Aronian in the Candidates. He says it is a terrible opening and amateurs shouldn’t play it. Then why does he? "I get bad positions in the QGD, how much worse can the Benoni be?"
The game he cites is in Round Five of the Moscow Candidates, March 16, 2016. It was a draw after 30 moves.
_______
All attention is on the game Nakamura-Topalov. Veselin has sacrificed his queen for bishop and rook.
Then, in response to a caller, Yasser tells two Botvinnik-Olympiad stories: For one Olympiad the team decided that Botvinnik was now too weak a player and left him off the team. Botvinnik complained to the Communist Party and they put him back on.
For another, Botvinnik told the team that they must play together and win as a team and not as a collection of individuals and then, turning to David Bronstein, “That means no King’s Gambits!”
I have heard the first story as Botvinnik not playing first board, which had been given to Paul Keres.
Yasser later on says that early in his chess career, he read the two volumes of Alekhine’s best games several times and that accelerated his chess learning. The second book that he read at least four times was Tal-Botvinnik, 1960 by Mikhail Tal.
(Andy Soltis) - This is simply the best book written about a world championship match by a contestant.
_______
Peter Svidler has drawn again and thanks Alexey Kuzman for his book on the opening (The Zaitsev System. Fresh Ideas and New Weapons for Black in the Ruy Lopez, New in Chess 2016). He may have seen an advance copy because it has yet to be published.
Peter says that without those initial two losses, his outlook would be much rosier. And in reply to Maurice’s question as to why there are suddenly so many drawn games, Peter says, “The playing field is now level since I have stopped losing”. The twinkle is back in his eye.
The Topalov-Nakamura game was the big topic during the analyses. As I said earlier, this was the sacrifice of a queen for bishop and rook.
One kibitzer wrote: Topa calls Naka’s play dubious and Naka uses the same term for Top's play.
Hikaru said that with Topalov, you aren’t sure if he is playing poker or chess – whether he is prepared or whether it is just bluff.
Giri said that So’s plan was slow equalization by trading off material. He makes fun of the draws by saying that they have been two beautiful days. Caruana is continuing his legacy of draws now that he can’t get them. He also warns that the day before the rest day, the players usually are desperate to finish quickly and draw. Tomorrow could be another day with split points.
The games:
Sinquefield Cup 2016
St. Louis Mo.
Round 4, Aug. 8, 2016
Aronian, Levon – Caruana, Fabiano
E10 Queen’s Pawn
This is half way through the tournament, so to speak. Tomorrow is a free day and Yasser is asked what there is to see in St. Louis within walking distance of the Chess Hall of Fame. He says the world-famous St. Louis Zoo, which is free; the Botanical Garden, the Art Museum, the City Museum, old Union Station and the Gateway Arch. At some time the players are going to see a baseball game with the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. They are playing the Cincinnati Reds both today and tomorrow.
A note on the Botanical Garden - The so-called Corpse Flower is expected to bloom this week.
Maurice saw Anand, Giri, Robin and Eric at the gym last night, so he asks him about what exercise he does. He says “planking” for 1.5 minutes. I am informed that this is what it consists of:
You lie flat on the floor, then raise yourself on your tiptoes and elbows — keeping your forearms on the ground and your back flat, so you look like a coffee table. Then you hold that position for as long as you can.
It sounds vaguely like a yoga-type pursuit, which involves stamina and concentration. Perhaps the perfect exercise for the professional chess player?
Wesley So thinks that he will walk to the Zoo tomorrow. Maurice presents him with the new book Eugenio Torre by Tibor Karolyi, a book in the series of legendary chess careers. Wesley says that he is the player who has played in the most consecutive chess Olympiads (19), a legend of Philippine chess, who taught Wesley how to use computers to analyze chess and who showed him the importance of the endgame.
Torre was a close friend of Bobby Fischer and Eugenio’s Wikipedia entry gives this anecdote:
When Torre and Fischer boarded a taxi in Buenos Aires, the driver immediately recognized Torre as a chess player. As both were about to leave the taxi, the driver, not knowing who the other distinguished passenger was, asked Torre: "Whatever happened to that crazy guy Fischer?"
________
For a time, it looked like White was better in most games but in the end, only one game was not a draw. Anish Giri, to get himself out of the rut of draws was forced to work out in the gym. As he explained it “Desperate times call for desperate measures”.
Levon Aronian looked none the worse for his food poisoning yesterday. He said that he had so many short games to conserve energy that now he has energy to spare. Maurice said the public values the fact that chess players exercise. Aronian laughed and replied, “And chess players value the fact that the public thinks they value exercise!”
Fabiano said that has been experiencing some time trouble in the endings because he has had very difficult decisions to make in the opening.
MVL is finding things are not going his way. He will use the rest day to just sleep and try to overcome his jetlag. But of course, he does have to go to that baseball game.
Peter Svidler wanted to keep all the pieces on the board. He said that Hikaru made a number of moves he just couldn’t figure out and in the end he was the one looking for a forced draw. He is looking forward to the baseball too.
Topalov-Ding Liren was a fighting game; many called it a roller coaster game. Ding sacrificed a pawn in the opening for little gain. Topalov ground away like Carlsen hour after hour and finally Topalov won. The endgame will appear in all the magazines next month.
Thus, Veselin is the sole leader.
The games:
Sinquefield Cup 2016
St. Louis, Mo.
Round 5, Aug. 9, 2016
Anand, Vishy – So, Wesley
C50 Giuoco Piano
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